Yeah well just recently I have fixed my year old HP prebuilt system. The stock video card it had died on me so I upgraded the Video Card and PSU. I removed alot of the junky other stuff that was in the other PCI slots. Well not all of it was junk but some it wasn't being used. There was a TV tuner Card, a modem card and a wireless net card. So for a bit my HP seemed to have new life and I was really happy with the new gaming capabilties (going from a Nvidia 7500LE to a 8600GT is a fairly big jump.) But a few days ago windows update popped up and said it had a number up important updates to install. Thinking it wouldn't be a huge deal I let it install them and as I wasn't doing anything important I let my system restart.... And the nightmare began. I got through the HP screen then the screen when black... I hit control ALT-Del and the system restarted it then prompted to run windows repair because it couldn't start up properly and I ran it through and after a few attempts it worked. Now this has gone on everytime I shut the computer down and restarted it. But now there is a new horrifying twyst windows repair is now telling me it can't repair the problem and it tells me to send a report to microsoft... I am so ticked off you have no idea first the video card dies on me and now a bunk windows update screws up my software? I don't know if anyone else has had this problem but if anyone has any ideas on how to help me I would really really appreciate it.

there may have been one driver but that was only for the onboard sound which I didn't think was a huge deal. and I had no idea one bunk sound drive could cause my system this kind of grief... I just don't understand how Windows repaired the problem before but now its having issues it makes no sense to me. after the repairs I uninstalled/installed NOTHING so its mind-blowing that it worked then and doesn't now.

I would start with a fresh install anyways. After some hardware changes I always do a reimage just to freshen things up some. And I can vouch for Windows Update, everytime I reinstall windows I start with SP2 then I do all the updates the windows recommends, which is around 100 updates.

I have done this process so many times I have lost count, and it works perfect. I think there is something else running that is causing these issues.

Can you get the computer running? I would try to get it to start in SafeMode (f8), then do a system restore. Otherwise wipe it and start over

I got it to safemode select screen then tried to choose the option to boot with the last successful boot setting but no dice. I will try safe mode again but another question I have is if you never set up and adminastrator password on you PC is there a global default password? Its asking for the admin password but I never set one up...

I got it to safemode select screen then tried to choose the option to boot with the last successful boot setting but no dice. I will try safe mode again but another question I have is if you never set up and adminastrator password on you PC is there a global default password? Its asking for the admin password but I never set one up...

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hmmm, i have ran into problems like that, I would always use my login username and password. Because I never set up the admin account and it wouldnt work for me There might be a way to do that though

and i would do a restore as far back as you can. I dont think it will remove personal files, I know vistas restore doesnt

I will try that stuff you said dude. And for the record your rig sounds amazing. For 3 days now I have been trying to figure out how to get the 260 bucks to buy an 8800 gt, I know I just bough an 8600 but the 8800 would bump my 3dmark from 4000 to over 10, 000 which is insane and for 260 bucks after taxes its a steal. But its not gonna happen now I couldn't figure out how to get the money and to makes matters better I can't even game with my 8600 right now cause of all of these computer problems...

I will try that stuff you said dude. And for the record your rig sounds amazing. For 3 days now I have been trying to figure out how to get the 260 bucks to buy an 8800 gt, I know I just bough an 8600 but the 8800 would bump my 3dmark from 4000 to over 10, 000 which is insane and for 260 bucks after taxes its a steal. But its not gonna happen now I couldn't figure out how to get the money and to makes matters better I can't even game with my 8600 right now cause of all of these computer problems...

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thanks, my 3870 died so I am gonna be getting a GTS g92 or a 9800gx2 when they come out.

and when i get that Ill also be upgrading my mobo and case. But I am really happy with the q6600, I love it. And I highly recommend it. This is my first experience with Gskill memory and it also has been great! I loved my 3870 also, but i should have been more careful when measuring core voltages.

As soon as you get your system up and running, get a copy of Norton Goback by Symantec. (I think that's what they still call it these days) You can get it pretty cheap and it is a lifesaver. I thought it was just a regular backup utility, but that is actually Norton Ghost. Goback, on the other hand, makes a restore point on your HDD (much like windows restore), but the cool thing is that it boots before Windows does. It is all automatic as well and it lets you go as far back as 48 hours. It's not a long term backup option by any means, but it's great for these problems where something seamingly small screws your system up. It has saved my butt countless times. If your system gets screwed up, you simply reboot and tell Goback to restore to a time before the error (depending on the size of your drive, this could take a little while) and the drive is restored to that point, and this includes drivers and windows updates. Check it out, it is a lifesaver and it'll keep you from having to do a full reinstall more than you need to.

so your 3870 is completely dead? I was gonna say if you just didn't want it anymore you could send it to me heh. It would probably blow my 8600 out of the water. I would love to build a new system but even though I have a Lian Li case I could reuse it would still be 1100 bucks. which for some people isn't that much but for me is nigh impossible... the 260 bucks seemed more feasible but with 2 kids and this being rent week unless someone decides to be insanely nice to me and buy one for me its just not going to materialize. Some good news is the computer managed to start in Safe mode it took over five minutes but it started and I now have it doing a system restore from the point just before I installed the initial windows update. Crossing my fingers big time...

As soon as you get your system up and running, get a copy of Norton Goback by Symantec. (I think that's what they still call it these days) You can get it pretty cheap and it is a lifesaver. I thought it was just a regular backup utility, but that is actually Norton Ghost. Goback, on the other hand, makes a restore point on your HDD (much like windows restore), but the cool thing is that it boots before Windows does. It is all automatic as well and it lets you go as far back as 48 hours. It's not a long term backup option by any means, but it's great for these problems where something seamingly small screws your system up. It has saved my butt countless times. If your system gets screwed up, you simply reboot and tell Goback to restore to a time before the error (depending on the size of your drive, this could take a little while) and the drive is restored to that point, and this includes drivers and windows updates. Check it out, it is a lifesaver and it'll keep you from having to do a full reinstall more than you need to.

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thats not a bad idea....

I just store all critical advice on a sperate HD and leave my OS HD just for the OS. Then if I have issues I just wipe it and start over. Not to much of a concern then. And no worries if a catastrophic failure happens

so your 3870 is completely dead? I was gonna say if you just didn't want it anymore you could send it to me heh. It would probably blow my 8600 out of the water. I would love to build a new system but even though I have a Lian Li case I could reuse it would still be 1100 bucks. which for some people isn't that much but for me is nigh impossible... the 260 bucks seemed more feasible but with 2 kids and this being rent week unless someone decides to be insanely nice to me and buy one for me its just not going to materialize. Some good news is the computer managed to start in Safe mode it took over five minutes but it started and I now have it doing a system restore from the point just before I installed the initial windows update. Crossing my fingers big time...

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I think youll be ok, good luck,

yah my 3870 is dead, all the way, Im gonna RMA it next week and get a replacement, then Im either gonna sell it to a friend or maybe trade it or something on here.

well it took its time doing the restore then it restarted and now its back at the black screen again. I am gonna leave it at the black screen for a while this time just to see if it just is taking windows some time to boot up. Maybe the whole time the reason it couldn't fix anything is because there was nothing to fix... Damn I always have to remember that alot of the time the most complicated problems have the most simple solutions. Yep and windows has finally booted.... wow thats one heck of a releif now if I could get an 8800gt i would be in heaven. Do you guys know how the 8600gt would run a few old games like Doom 3 and Farcry? I would love to try them again. Thanks for all the help and if anyone knows anyone who has an 8800gt they don't want anymore PLEASE let me know... Its a longshot but what the heck.

Yea same thing happen to me, downloaded the updates and then computer would come up. Wanted vista disk to repair. Bad thing was I was in another state with out disk. Hell I was jonesen with out a computer. Lucky for me once I got it home Vista disk repaired and I have had no problems since. I'm beginning to hate microsoft more and more.